Judge throws Australian in jail for 26 years for pitching his Canadian girlfriend from 15th floor balcony

SYDNEY, Australia — A Sydney man convicted of throwing his Canadian girlfriend off the balcony of their high-rise apartment in a crime that captivated Australia was sentenced Tuesday to 26 years in prison.

Simon Gittany was convicted by a judge in November of hurling his fiancée , former ballerina Lisa Harnum, from their 15th floor home in a fit of rage in July 2011 after discovering she planned to leave him.

The 40-year-old, who was steadfastly supported in court by a glamorous new girlfriend whom accompanied him to court, maintained his innocence throughout the trial, claiming a suicidal Harnum, 30, slipped and fell after climbing over a railing.

There was testimony about previous violent acts committed by Gittany, which included biting off part of a policeman’s ear in 1994.

Justice Lucy McCallum said Gittany had shown no remorse and had little prospect of rehabilitation. He must serve a minimum 18 years in prison before he may apply for parole.

Justice McCallum described Gittany as a Jekyll and Hyde personality defined by contradictions – a highly religious man capable of generosity to his family but also of dominating and eventually murdering Harnum.

She found that Gittany’s throwing his fiancee off the balcony was not premeditated as the Crown had claimed, but one based on an intention ”formed suddenly and in a state of rage,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported. It had a ”troubling resonance” with the ear-biting incident nearly 20 years before, with both entailing ”a sudden loss of control and a response of extreme violence to a blameless act.”

”Each involves a form of violence that is shocking and unequivocal,” she said. ”In the case of the malicious wounding, a police officer was performing his duty … In the case of the murder of Ms Harnum, she was attempting to leave the apartment, as was her undoubted right.”

After hearing the sentence, Gittany stared straight ahead and left the court without speaking. His lawyer said outside court there would be an appeal.

During his trial, the court heard Gittany was controlling, had installed CCTV cameras inside the apartment and used a computer program to monitor Harnum’s text messages and emails.

One of the cameras showed him restraining Harnum outside their home and then dragging her back inside on the night she died.

Harnum was heard yelling: “Please help me, help me, God help me.”

The court had heard how sixty-nine seconds before Harnum died, a hallway security camera installed by her jealous fiancé captured him violently dragging her back into their home, his hand over her mouth.

Seconds later, the same camera captured Simon Gittany clutching his head in evident distress on his way down to the lobby in an elevator (as revealed in the video below).

Two vastly different theories of her death were floated at his trial.

In the first, a jealous and possessive Gittany took control over Harnum’s life, ordered her not to look at other men, monitored her text messages, and then, in a rage at her attempt to leave him, threw her over the balcony of their rented apartment, purse and all.

A police officer would later find a note torn to bits in her jeans pocket, with a heart-stopping message: “There are surveillance cameras inside and outside the house.”

Her mother Joan, who had travelled from Ottawa to testify, similarly described her daughter’s fearful attempts to leave him.

“I told her if things got really bad, just to grab her passport and purse and get out, that her things don’t matter,” Joan Harnum said.

In the second theory, advanced by Gittany’s defence, a troubled young woman who had been treated for an eating disorder, killed herself, perhaps by accident, in the midst of merely threatening to jump. Or, maybe, she executed a “ballerina style jump” over the railing, which would explain why her fingerprints were not on it.

In closing arguments two weeks ago, Gittany’s lawyer Philip Strickland urged the judge not to disregard the “likelihood that out of desperation, Lisa Harnum voluntarily climbed over the balustrade to escape Simon Gittany or as a cry for attention.”

“Or one can not eliminate the possibility she intended to kill herself,” he said.

He also urged the judge to be skeptical of an eyewitness who testified he saw Gittany, shirtless, unload what he then believed to be garbage from his balcony. The witness was about 200 metres away, and Gittany is wearing a shirt in the videos.

Another witness said he saw Gittany look over the railing, then pump his fist in the air.

Off the balcony, you go!

When the sentence was announced, a member of Gittany’s family in the public gallery was removed from court after yelling: “In the name of Jesus Christ, he won’t do any of that time.”

Reporters said another woman celebrated when the sentence was handed down, shouting “Off the balcony, you go” to Gittany.

His current girlfriend Rachelle Louise, who has fiercely defended Gittany, was noticeably absent for the sentencing. Reports said she had signed a lucrative deal with commercial network Channel Seven to tell her side of the story.

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